No retreat, no surrender for free-speaking candidate Trump

FILE - In this July 11, 2015, file photo, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at FreedomFest in Las Vegas. Trump criticized Sen. John McCain's military record at a conservative forum Saturday, saying the party's 2008 nominee and former prisoner of war was a "war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren't captured." McCain spent 20 years in the Navy, a quarter of it in a Vietnamese prisoner of war camp after his jet was shot down over Hanoi during a bombing mission Oct. 26, 1967. (AP Photo/John Locher, File) FILE - In this July 11, 2015, file photo, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at FreedomFest in Las Vegas. Trump criticized Sen. John McCain's military record at a conservative forum Saturday, saying the party's 2008 nominee and former prisoner of war was a "war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren't captured." McCain spent 20 years in the Navy, a quarter of it in a Vietnamese prisoner of war camp after his jet was shot down over Hanoi during a bombing mission Oct. 26, 1967. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)

By Associated Press July 19, 2015 1 min read

WASHINGTON (AP) – Once again, Donald Trump isn’t backing down from comments that have inflamed the Republican presidential race.

At an Iowa GOP forum Saturday, Trump dismissed Arizona Sen. John McCain’s reputation as a war hero, saying McCain was merely captured in Vietnam and “I like people who weren’t captured.”

That’s caused an uproar. But Trump isn’t repentant.

On ABC’s “This Week,” Trump insists: “I will say what I want to say.”

And in a statement, Trump says he has a strong record of supporting veterans and politicians such as McCain have failed veterans.